Bringing Nature to Urban Spaces

You don’t have to live near by a forest or have your own garden to get access to the positive benefits of nature. If you like me live in an urban environment with more buildings than trees and more cars than gardens you might still want to invite nature into your daily life.

Take a look around your home – do you have plants and flowers around you? You don’t need to have many however I it is important that the ones you have makes you happy and that they are in a good condition. Taking care of my plants I feel is calming and I enjoy seeing them grow and bloom.

You might also want to bring things from the nature into your home; stones, rocks, pebbles collected at lovely trips in the forest or at the beach. Good memories will come to you when you look at them. For me it is also a reminder of how happy such trips makes me.

If you have a balcony it is of course an excellent chance to make it grow and bloom. Make it your green private garden. I have during the years experimented with different plants and flowers in the four window box we have at our balcony. There has been Roses, Geraniums, Marguerite, herbs and much more. During the years I have found out what kind of plants that can cope with the conditions at the balcony and we found out what kind of plants and flowers we really like and enjoy. This year the colours are pink and purple and different plants are mixed together. I also have planted strawberry for the first time. I am excited to see how they will grow (and to be able to pick my first home-grown strawberry).

What do you look out at when you look out of your windows? Do you have any impact on the surrounding area? You might have a courtyard where you can take part in the gardening and deciding what plants and flowers to plant.

There are many ways of inviting nature into urban spaces and I will write more about urban farming and urban gardening in the coming posts.

Yesterday I became aware of the French company Bacsac. They make geotextile bags for urban gardening (see the image). The bags can be used to transform any space into a growing, living garden. The Bacsac is a lightweight and portable bag that can be used indoors or out, on terraces, balconies, rooftops and yards. Users simply fill the permeable bags with soil and plant what they wish. The bags are made of double-walled and fully recyclable geotextile fabric that maintains the necessary balance between air, soil and water; it’s also resistant to sun, frost and tears. It sounds almost as I work for the company but I don’t. I just think that it is interesting that designers take their time to design new and sustainable bags for urban gardening. I am looking very much forward to trying it out.

You are most welcome to comment and tell me how you invite nature into your life and about other examples of urban farming and gardening.